PAMA: FAA should require maintenance training

The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) is strongly urging the FAA to require all air carrier, commuter and on-demand operators to have and implement FAA-approved mechanical training programs.

In a letter to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, PAMA president Brian Finnegan noted that “a number of fatal commercial aviation accidents have occurred over the past several years in which maintenance issues have played contributory, if not causal, roles. Regrettably, poor, incomplete or infrequent maintenance training was often at the heart of those maintenance issues,” Finnegan wrote.

In his letter, Finnegan outlined the disparity between the training requirements for flight crewmembers and other airmen, and those for maintenance technicians. “The FARs currently require comprehensive, FAA-approved initial and recurrent training programs for pilots, flight engineers, flight attendants and dispatchers,” he wrote.

“Conversely, and unbelievably, no FAA-approved training program is required for maintenance technicians. While flight crewmembers constantly perform critical safety-of-flight tasks, their efforts can be for naught if highly trained and experienced technicians do not maintain their aircraft. This regulatory lapse must be corrected immediately.”